It really does pay to attend Centrallia

Every business person in Winnipeg did not attend Centrallia events last week.

And some of those who weren't there probably wished they were for all sorts of different reasons.

One reason would be that just about everyone they spoke to who did attend probably told them how great an event it actually was.

-- Tom Tessier had to have his arm twisted before he agreed to attend. But the founder and president of Winnipeg's Solara Remote Data Delivery, a niche satellite communication device manufacturer, said he probably made a sale worth tens of thousands of dollars to an Algerian air ambulance firm.

-- Harvey Chorney, the vice-president of Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Portage la Prairie, said he was blown away.

The non-profit organization can't survive without fee-for-service development work and Chorney said he's got plenty of leads, including some in the U.S. and Europe, in the meetings he had.

-- Robert Hooper of Hooper Containers Inc. is trying to launch a company making a new hybrid shipping container.

He said by attending Centrallia, he got his foot in all sorts of doors he needed to get through.

Several Winnipeg institutions such as the Composites Innovation Centre and the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals hosted tours.

At the least, their respective profiles have been enhanced and important international contacts were made.

Mariette Mulaire is the president of ANIM, the province's bilingual trade agency, which organizes the event. (Last week's Centrallia was the second time it's been held in Winnipeg.)

"There were so many real stories," Mulaire said. "I was shocked with how many people said they actually made deals, because I always told people that deals don't actually get done at the event... that it's the followup that counts."